Goats... in the van!

This winter we had some subtractions and additions to our farm family.  Luke Skywalker (above) was a good dog.  He kept coyotes away, restrained himself from sucking eggs, and let the kids put clothes on him.   Sadly, he got too interested in the highway and was hit by a vehicle.  

Sarah and Josh were devastated.  We buried him up by the shop, and Josh and Sarah decorated his grave with a wooden cross and a necklace with his name on it made from alphabet beads.  

Just a FEW days before, we got goats!!!  That in itself was an adventure... involving a trip to the boonies, buying goats from a shady situation, and then transporting the goats home in our VAN!!!  

 

The goats are Sarah's big adventure.  She used all of her birthday money to buy them, does all of the goat chores, etc.  The goal is milk, so she traded the little brown and white buck to the Blassingames in exchange for a Nubian baby doe named Buttercup.  

Unfortunately, Buttercup had been sick and the stress and change was just too much for her.  She died the day after Luke was killed.  Bless her heart, Sarah was so sad.  We buried Buttercup next to Luke.  

The Blassingames were kind to give us Bucky back, and so we were back to our original 3, van transported goats.  At this point our fence was not finished, and the goats spent most of their time knocking on the back door or napping on the patio!

When you have chickens and goats, you can't go very long without a dog.  Although we had Frizzy, she was busy getting pampered and spending a great deal of time in the house... (She was present for Luke's accident, and we found her shaking in the bushes across the road about 6 hours later.)  

We decided on a Great Pyrenees to take Luke's place.  Meet Chewy, short for Chewbacca.  (Staying with Star Wars theme.)  Josh was thrilled!  Chewy was small enough to stand under Frizzy's belly!  It is hard to remember him being so small... 

He just kept growing... and growing... and growing.... 

And now he is a GIANT!!  You could fit two Frizzys under him!  

It wasn't long before the goats began to get in our garden, eat my flowers, and even climb on the vehicles!!  It was a good thing that Scott got the fence built over spring break!